Perma-Stubble

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I'm trying to think of the last action movie I saw with realistic facial hair. I sometimes wonder how these guys go through days of unremitting action while still finding time off to use an electric shaver on the stubble setting.

In the wonderful land of Hollywood, the law of Good Hair, Evil Hair is irrevocably ingrained in concrete. To wit, the only people who don't shave are Action Heroes; everyone else has good hygiene. Even Mooks are better groomed, or are ugly and easily distinguished from our hero.

Especially fun when the hero has a perfectly shaved head (unless naturally bald or getting there) and a five o'clock shadow. Even when starting a film with a perfectly smooth jaw, all it takes for the hero to grow his five-o'clock shadow is the sound of gunfire. Big Damn Heroes don't sweat when anxious; they grow facial hair.

Not entirely unrealistic, as men with dark hair but slow beard growth (and especially with lighter skin for contrast) can get a 5-o'clock shadow which then stays perma-stubble for days without any maintenance.

Almost ubiquitous among Mr. Fanservice characters, from the common female perspective that facial hair is manly, but too much is foul.

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Examples:

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A commercial for Energizer Batteries featured a man whose beard grew back within seconds after he shaved it. As a result, he had to bring his electric razor (powered by Energizer batteries, of course) with him wherever he went, and shave his beard at the most inopportune moments.

Anime and Manga

Mr. Satan from Dragon Ball Z has the Hulk Hogan 1990s' look (5 o'clock shadow with a fully grown handle bar mustache), though his was all the same color.

Holland from Eureka Seven has some around his chin, and it does make him look fairly badass (you can see him without it in a flashback, though).

Protagonist Shinichi from Kore wa Koi no Hanashi has a bit of stubble on his chin, which he rarely — if ever — shaves off.

Yuuichirou from Sailor Moon has long hair with Blinding Bangs and a face full of stubble, even though other young men his age (like Mamoru, for example, who even references having to shave) are clean-shaven and well-trimmed. It is revealed a few episodes after his appearance that he is the son of wealthy parents that on business/living abroad, and he hopes to find an identity other than being a rich kid, so he might be purposely trying to look unkempt to hide his family history.

Kaji has stubble, probably because of his confusing and ambiguous job description, which probably makes him too busy to shave. It's lampshaded a lot by some of the characters: Misato criticises it a lot and thinks it makes him look lazy and careless; Hikari refers to him as "the cool-looking guy that never shaves", and Asuka thinks that it makes him look much more attractive. Kaji's fangirls agree with Asuka.

Younger Gendo in a flashback to the early days of his partnership with Prof Fuyusuki. After his wife's death, Gendo grows out his stubble into a thick beard.

It's pretty subtle (as in, you might not notice it unless you pay close attention), but Mugen has some very slight stubble and the faint beginnings of a mustache throughout Samurai Champloo. Makes sense, as he's supposed to be 19.

Manji from Blade of the Immortal has a rare case of literal perma-stubble. His Immortality locks him into the state he was in when he was first cursed with it, thus he can neither shave it off or grow it out.

Wolverine as well, though the movies have him pretty well cleaned up at times.

Depending upon the era, The Punisher certainly qualifies - during his '90s Anti-Hero phase, he had stubble so often his action figures had it. Since the Garth Ennis reboot of the 2000's, he's gone clean-shaven (although it has returned on occasion during Ennis' Marvel Max run).

Rarely is Nick Fury ever seen without his 5 o'clock shadow. One has to go back to his Howling Commando days to see what he looks like clean shaven.

Depending on the Artist, clean shaven Bruce Wayne sometimes grows an instant rugged stubble the moment he puts on the Batman mask. It's also reliably a part of any disguise as a disreputable character.

Lampshaded in the case of Desperate Dan of the British The Dandy comic: his stubble, like everything else about him, is super-tough, so removing it is very, very hard. It also grows back super-fast.

In Fables Bigby Wolf has to constantly shave because of his ancestry. This becomes a minor plot point in one issue because members of the SS were expected to be clean shaven and Bigby needed to impersonate one.

In the '90s, and in certain titles over the past year or so, you could expect any male over the age of eighteen who didn't already have a full beard or goatee to sport this, usually in either Marvel or Image comics. Practically the only one to escape was Captain America.

Comicbook representations of Soontir Fel seem to veer around this interestingly. As a youth pre-conscription he was clean shaven. After gaining some renown as a fighter pilot and starting to teach more pilots he grew a very neat goatee. But as various things happened and he lost faith in the Empire, he started getting more and more stubbly. He tended to have stubble after defecting, too. Not all the time, but, for example, there's a point when all of the Rogues are cut off from civilization for long enough that all of the human males grow stubble. A few scenes later, everyone but Fel has found time to shave. Yet he never has an actual beard.

All male hyenas from The Lion King, most notably Banzai and Ed, for some reason have perma-stubble, which is simply a patch of darker fur around the muzzle.

If you look closely in Megamind, Megamind has perma-stubble when masquerading as Bernard. Justified, since Bernard had 5 o'clock shadow when Megamind scanned him with the disguise watch.

The Road to El Dorado: Spanish con men Tulio and Miguel spend days wandering through the Amazon, with no visible access to soap, let alone shaving supplies. Tulio's perma-stubble look stays immaculate through the entire film.

Aragorn of The Lord of the Rings has about two weeks of stubble for three films, until he becomes king and instantly grows a regal beard. Elves can't grow beards, so the stubble works as a symbol that he's an outsider among them and not comfortable with the fact.

Toshiro Mifune plays a gruff and disheveled samurai in various films who usually goes unshaven. Mifune often sticks his arm up through his collar to absently rub his stubbly chin, which has become an iconic image for the actor and the character.

Escape from New York: Snake Plissken, though the film takes place over a single night, so naturally it never changes.

Colter Stevens has perma-stubble in Source Code, even when the person he's inhabiting is clean shaven. Which might be justified by the concept of "residual self-image": Colter simply remembers himself looking like that.

Harry Potter alternates between this and clean-shaven in The Deathly Hallows, which is understandable since he and his friends had to move around the UK to get away from Voldemort. It was, however, lampshaded by Dumbledore in The Half-Blood Prince, who said to Harry, "You need a shave," before they left Hogwarts, and followed it with a Hes All Grown Up monologue about how far Harry had come.

Perky GothManchild Gary King in The World's End sports (highly untidy) facial hair, which coupled with his generally ungroomed appearance shows what a self-destructive lifestyle will do to you. He's clean-shaven — and sober — by the end of the movie.

The low-budget movie Trancers is a rare instance where the explanation is shown on screen. Jack Deth used futuristic technology to jump into his ancestor's body 300 years earlier. When he jumped, his ancestor had his face lathered up and was about to shave. Since Jack didn't know anything about twentieth-century shaving methods, he just wiped the foam off his face and went unshaven for the rest of the movie.

Jeff Speakman in The Perfect Weapon sports a five o'clock shadow that's actually just painted on.

Kíli in The Hobbit retains the exact same stubble length for the entirety of the first two movies.

Hank has light stubble throughout the movie which is meant to make him look older than his clean-shaven appearance in First Class.

Sunspot sports a 5 o'clock shadow, making him unique among the Free Mutants.

X-Men: Apocalypse: Charles has faint stubble instead of being clean-shaven (which is his regular look in the franchise), and at first, it seems to convey to the audience that he hasn't fully reclaimed his heroic Professor X identity. He's a relaxed, content principal, teacher, and low-key mutant activist, not a commander of a paramilitary group like in X-Men: First Class. However, once he decides that it's necessary for him to step up his role as a leader of mutants, he still keeps the extra facial hair—this illustrates that James McAvoy's character is "rougher-around-the-edges" than Patrick Stewart's in the original timeline. Xavier's stubble is also a Shout-Out to Detective James "Sonny" Crockett from Miami Vice.note Charles' costumes were directly inspired by the character on the TV show.

In many variants of Our Vampires Are Different (Such as Anne Rice's), vampires can't change the length of their hair, because their regeneration simply causes it to grow back to the original length in minutes. Hence, they're stuck with whatever hair-length they had when they were "turned". Thus, for a vampire, having perma-stubble could actually be justified.

Samuel Vimes from Discworld . Even though he shaves regularly, he always is drawn with a stubble.

Ditto Nobby Nobbs, who was described in one book as "clean-shaven, at least he was clean-shaven the last time he shaved."

In Vimes' case, it probably has something to do with the fact that he's described as being so fundamentally, in-the-bone scruffy that he could "rumple a helmet".

True to its hardboiled roots, the hero of The Dresden Files is often described as having a light stubbly beard, though the length of said facial hair occasionally fluctuates. While any sort of stubble is noticeably absent from nearly all the cover art, the first few graphic novel adaptations had a hairier Harry more in line with the books' descriptions.

The Legend of Drizzt: Artemis Enteri is described as having a stubbled beard that "no amount of shaving could ever lighten."

Bendel, from Pettersson & Bendel.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Stannis sports a beard that is trimmed so short, it's just a 5 o'clock shadow along his jaw.

Time Scout's Kit Carson always sports a little mustache, but when things go to hell during Ripper Season, he ends up with manly stubble.

In John R. Powers' The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God, the main character, Tim Conroy, describes his pal Bill Weatherly thusly:

Weatherly was a rather strange fellow. He always had what appeared to be a three-day growth of beard, which meant that he must have gotten up every morning and shaved off one days growth.

Lampshaded in Warbreaker, where Vasher's perpetual beard stubble leads Vivenna to wonder if he actively trims it too look like that. It's eventually revealed to be literal perma-stubble; Vasher's a Returned, which means his appearance changes only if he actively wills it to.

On Arrow, Oliver sports that after some time spent on the island. He's shown to grow it into a Badass Beard by the time he's rescued, and then keeps the stubble once he gets back to civilization. Also during the island days, Slade had some stubble that he probably keeps in check thanks to one of his many blades.

Mitchell from Being Human. He even shows up to an interview with a few day's worth of stubble.

Michael Westen grows a five-o'clock shadow in the second season mid-finale. This episode he portrays a hard-drinking bodyguard to catch the attention of a would-be kidnapper. It fits the character personality, but also makes him that much more badass when he "gets religion" and fights back.

Sam Axe never met a razor he liked. He gets called on it in the fourth season.

Jeff Winger on Community starting in season 3, possibly showing that Greendale has made him less uptight.

The Second Doctor has one, but it's to indicate scruffiness rather than badassness. His Criminal Doppelgänger Salamander, by contrast, has darker stubble indicating his relative sexiness compared to the Doctor.

The Tenth Doctor, which he seems to lampshade when he encounters the Fifth Doctor:

The Doctor: Check out this bone structure, Doctor, because one day you're going to be shaving it!

Sylar, the brain-stealing supervillain from Heroes. In his meek Clark Kentish persona Gabriel Gray, he is clean-shaven and wears glasses. As soon as he manifested his powers and learned that Evil Feels Good, he grew stubble. (Well, alright, not immediately. But the only time we see him shaving off the stubble is when he visits his mother, who didn't know what her son had been up to.)

Peter jumped between being clean-shaven and stubbly in Season 1, which became non-existent in Season 2, returned with a vengeance in Volume Four, and hasn't seemed to disappear since. Also, Future Peter 1.0 was made of this.

Mohinder also had stubble much of the time. Future!Mohinder as of "Five Years Gone" replaced this with a full beard (and glasses).

House always looks disheveled, a combination of his disability and his personality. The stubble is lampshaded in several episodes. Then in one episode, House actually shaves his face clean, and the result (and character reaction) is so jarring that he looks like a stranger, highlighting how much the stubble is associated with his character. On another occasion, Dr. Wilson tells him, "I lied. I've been lying to you in increasing amounts ever since I told you you looked good unshaved a year ago."

In later seasons, Dr. Chase got some stubble too, causing many of his fangirls to squeal in delight.

The titular character from Jack Taylor, as played by Iain Glen. Lampshaded by his mother, who asks if he's ever shaved.

Cyrus Lupo from Law & Order, particularly since Ed Green left and he's now the senior partner.

Though in 20.12 the Lt called him on it, telling him (and the junior) to get a shave because he was not in Fallujah any more.

Lost has an interesting case of this. Despite having very limited access to a razor, almost none of the males have grown beards. Maybe slowing down the growth of facial hair is yet another special quality of the island. The rest is covered under Improbable Hairstyle.

Though Locke is shown shaving his head in the hatch.

Jack's stubble is actually parodied in a sketch on MADtv. Apparently the only razor Jack has access to is a sharpened seashell which apparently only keeps his beard at 5 o'clock shadow.

On more than one occasion characters have questioned Hurley's beard growing ability.

Charlie's stubble borders on a beard, although in a season three episode he is seen shaving it off.

Sawyer always rocks it.

Don Draper of Mad Men has a permanent five-o'clock shadow (that gray color on his cheeks), even after being shaved by his barber.

Matt Murdock has perma-stubble, arguably the result of his blindness making it impossible for him to do a close shave.

Christian Blake, a corrupt cop on Wilson Fisk's payroll, has a five o'clock shadow.

Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice was probably the Trope Codifier. Electric shavers didn't even have a "stubble" setting before the show aired. That was introduced as a direct response to Sonny Crockett's popularity.

Charlie on NUMB3RS has varying amounts of stubble throughout the show.

Shawn from Psych, who has actually woken up with less stubble than when he went to bed.

Dr. Cox on Scrubs sometimes. For the most part he's clean shaven. Though he did grow it out one season, and then J.D. started doing it.

Dr. Harry Cunningham from Silent Witness was clean-shaven for his first few seasons, then started sporting stubble and retained that look for the rest of his time on the show. It's entirely possible he made that choice so he'd finally stop being mistaken for a student.

John Sheppard of Stargate Atlantis has a fluctuating level of stubble, but he is never fully without it.

Daniel Jackson of Stargate SG-1 had one for the first few episodes of season nine (allegedly it was to help tell him apart from Cam Mitchell who had just joined the show), but quickly went back to being clean shaven. However he was sporting stubble again in his final appearance in Stargate Universe.

Dean Winchester. This was done in part to make his actor, Jensen Ackles, look older than Jared Padalecki, the actor playing Dean's younger brother, Sam. To an extent, it's pretty necessary. Take a look at him in the seventeenth episode of the fourth season, where he's clean-shaven and looks about five years younger than he does in the rest of the episodes. There were some other factors at play there, but still.

Starting in season 8, Sam grew stubble too.

Castiel. Justified in that he's an angel possessing a man and the body is either in stasis or Castiel maintains it the way it was when he took possession. The actor himself, Misha Collins, also seems to have a case of stubble too.

Rick from The Walking Dead has an egregious case of this, as it is post-Zombie Apocalypse, yet he still maintains a perpetual three-day beard growth. He even had it when he woke from a months-long coma! This is in sharp contrast to the original comic, where his beard does grow realistically.

On Wolf Hall, Sir Thomas More has a perpetual two-days beard. The effect is to make him look slovenly rather than tough; in the book Cromwell mentally comments that More's busy schedule of hair shirts and self-flagellation must take away time from shaving.

Music

Michael W. Smith in the 80s and 90s.

All over the place in Country Music; nearly everyone has stubble, a beard or a goatee. It seems a lack of facial hair is forbidden unless you're George Strait.

The Vocaloid character Tonio has stubble and a tuxedo in his boxart, giving him a bit of an unkempt-opera-singer Tuxedo and Martini vibe. The fandom took this and ran with it.

Newspaper Comics

Back in The '70s, the Israeli comic strip Dry Bones joked about Yasser Arafat's stubble. "Does he only appear in public on the third day after shaving? Does he have a faulty electric razor? How does Yasser do it?!?"

As of Devil May Cry 4, Dante has one. Oddly, it's a different color from the rest of his hair. It's uncommon, but not unheard of, for facial hair to come in a different color than the rest of a man's hair. Supposedly, Dante's hair color actually was originally brown until his demon bloodline kicked in, though this still doesn't explain why it only changed from the eyebrows up.

Although the game only takes place over a couple of days. Evening One: Dante kills Sanctus, everything in the town except the Berial fight. Night One: Nero fights Berial, everything in the castle. Day Two: Everything in the forest and headquarters for both Dante and Nero. Night Two: Dante's leg of the castle and fight with Berial. Day Three: Dante kills Agnus and the final battle.

The characters in Street Fighter II were given a minor makeover in the Champion Edition, and one of those was giving a shadow to Ryu.

If you look hard enough at the large posters, you can see that Assassin's Creed protagonist Altair has stubble.

Several of the Team Fortress 2 classes namely: The Heavy, The Soldier, The Sniper, The Engineer and The Spy (or what little you can see through his mask) look as if they haven't shaven in a week. As for the others, while the Medic has a shadow enough to show he's a man who shaved yesterday, the Scout is so devoid of facial hair that it's as if his balls haven't even dropped yet. The Demoman has a fine bushy beard that seems to be a style choice, and the Pyro is none of your damn business.

When Solid Snake's being an angsty self-proclaimed bastard in the first Metal Gear Solid, he's clean-shaven. In Metal Gear Solid 2, when he's being far more personable and open, cue a shadow—apparently to invoke a vagrant living on a miserable budget, according to the character designer. Interestingly enough, an Easter Egg allows Raiden to give Snake a shaver as a present right at the start of the game, which causes him to be clean-shaven towards the end. You just have to find it first. (His friend Otacon also has stubble, but that's more about being an unkempt Otaku than a badass.)

In the Metal Gear Solid graphic novel, the artist draws Snake smooth-faced◊ at the start of the story, gritty◊ towards the middle, and with a young beard◊ towards the end (and on the cover of the PSP version), suggesting he just grows facial hair very quickly.

In the fourth game, Phoenix Wright sports one, signifying his significant change in life and personality.

Gumshoe has this, along with a perpetual bandage over what is presumably a shaving cut. Since everyone in the games only has one sprite (unless time travel or costume change is involved), he never changes.

The default facial preset for Mass Effect's male Commander Shepard—which is a head-scan of Dutch fashion model Mark Vanderloo—has an impressive one of these, as well as a variation of stubble available for customized faces.

Shepard's lieutenant, Kaidan Alenko, also has this. It's even more apparent with the third installments' improved textures.

Joker has one that's on its way to become a Badass Beard. In the first game, he even jokes he'll have to turn down a medal because the brass will want him to shave, which is not going to happen as he's "spent seven weeks growing this baby".

Volke, an assassin in the Fire Emblem series, has stubble in Path of Radiance. He also happens to be one of the most badass and wittiest characters in the game. In the sequel, Radiant Dawn, he's wearing a scarf that covers his chin, but he exchanges the stubble for even more badass lines.

Ardyn of Final Fantasy XV is portrayed with stubble in his older age. Official art showing him as a young man showed him with a full beard. Also subverts the usual use of the trope, as he's not just a villain but the Big Bad of the game.

Torn of the Jak and Daxter series seems to have this, though it's lighter than the rest of his skin...a five o'clock AM shadow?

Ryotaro Dojima of Persona 4, though given how he's characterized it's more a sign that he's overworked and stressed-out by his job as a detective.

Bishop from Neverwinter Nights 2. This detail is even mentioned in his in-game description, probably to underscore his polar-opposition to Casavir, who is clean-shaven.

Again with BioWare, Alistair of Dragon Age: Origins (also an example of Mr. Fanservice), though somewhat unusually his is blond. Most non-bearded male NPCs are also stubbly, unless they're elves. The sequel also has stubble on Varric (an unusual non-bearded dwarf) and Anders (who has brown stubble despite his blond hair; perhaps he bleaches?). As of Inquisition, Cullen has perpetual five o'clock shadow and bags under his eyes, despite his romance's "Disney Prince" reputation.

In The Witcher 3:The Wild Hunt, Geralt and most of the men in the setting have stubble to various degrees. Geralt is unique in that you can actually shave him, or let his beard grow, or anywhere in between. If you do shave him, it's never quite a clean shave, as is what happens when someone only uses a single blade.

Batman again, in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Actually, he begins the game clean shaven, and winds up with stubble by the time it's over. Which in the timeframe, was probably all of one night (but maybe his facial hair does grow that fast).

Though we have no idea how long Batman tangled with the Joker before he brought him into Arkham.

In Batman: Arkham Origins, he shows impressive foresight by having stubble at the very beginning of the game, meaning he doesn't have to grow it over the night.

Sims 2 allows you to configure your characters with stubble — which is relatively tame, considering that the same function allows you to change your hair color and length, longer OR shorter.

Glas from Fear Effect has stubble in both games, as well as the cancelled third game.

Angeal Hewley from Crisis Core, in contrast to the baby-faced Bishonens Genesis, Sephiroth, and Zack.

If you don't have York shave in Deadly Premonition, he can eventually grow a full-blown Badass Beard. However, no matter how often you do make use of that razor, he always has a permanent five-o-clock shadow.

Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell. Also, if you horse around too long on missions, he'll eventually grow a thicker one.

Motomi from Togainu no Chi. Although all the other males in Toshima are clean-shaven...

Eoleo shows up to Golden Sun: Dark Dawn in stubble. His career indicates the action anti-hero interpretation, but the fact that he's an adult player character in a series full of teenage heroes probably contributes to it, too.

Averted in Max Payne 3, as Max starts the game with some stubble and ends it with a full beard and a shaved head.

Beginning in Tekken 3, which takes place after a 20-year Time Skip, Paul Phoenix started sporting some gruff-looking stubble in addition to his Anime Hair. Video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly said it made him look "older and angrier" in their Tekken 3 preview, which is a good assessment.

Webcomics

Toivo, Larry's gay Neanderthal best friend in Groovy, Kinda When Toivo's pirate double, Mancanilla, shows up, their stubble is identical even though one was freshly shaved and the other was trying to grow a beard.

A shepherd in Erstwhile has stubble, presumably to show that he's, well, just a shepherd. He doesn't even appear clean-shaven at the heroine's wedding.

Dimo the Jaegermonster from Girl Genius is a badass, and he has the stubble to match.

Displayed by semi-fallen angel Rumisiel in Misfile, in stark contrast to his clean shaven boy scout of a brother. It suits his stoner/slacker persona quite well.

Rocko Sasquatch in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. He learns that he is actually a Bigfoot who was exiled for being born bald; ironically, his beard and eyebrows are the only significant hair on his body.

Several of the characters in Stubble Trouble are permanently bald (they're furries who like to shave off their fur; try to figure that one out).

Invoked and parodied with the main character in the PodcastSci-FiRadio DramaLog of the Crimson Lien. He's descended from genetically-altered humans, and, as a result, has extremely sparse and slow hair growth. Years upon years of not shaving has still only resulted in a 5 o'clock shadow, which he keeps because he thinks it makes him look like a rugged space adventurer.

Robbie from Eddie at The LMV is the shortest in the band (even the female members are taller), so he has stubble to look as old as everyone else.

Web Video

Built up in The Autobiography of Jane Eyre when it came to Mr Rochester, who inherited a family company and should be a serious businessman, but has a tattoo and wears striped socks with skinny jeans. In the tenth episode, he was only shown from the waist down, but then in the next episode, his face is revealed ... with a face-full of stubble.

Homer Simpson of The Simpsons, though, in his case, it's more to accentuate his low-browness. If he shaves, it still grows back in a matter of seconds. In one episode, he's shaving but leaves his usual because Marge likes a bit of stubble. It has at times become worse when he can't take care of it. He shaves off his muzzle by accident at one point and uses a spray-on can of stubble to replace it.

If we wanna argue robotic facial hair, one could say that Transformers Animated Ratchet has what at least looks like stubble. Even without the three little dents that are consistently drawn on his face, the area around his mouth is colored purplish-blue, like five o' clock shadow.

Colonel Hunter Gathers from The Venture Bros. maintains his perma-stubble even after getting a sex change operation.

Real Life

Certain men (and particularly certain ethnic groups) have a facial hair anatomy such that it is extremely difficult to shave cleanly. This is particularly true for men of African descent whose hair grows in at a narrow angle. Shaving can also actually be more dangerous for such people, since closely trimming hair at such a narrow angle makes it far more likely for the hair to become ingrown. While some of these people do diligently shave anyway (particularly if they are a minority in cultures that have a taboo against facial hair), they never quite look clean-shaven.

Some people's facial hair just grows very, very slowly, meaning that it could take as much as a week before you actually notice it to have gotten longer. The opposite is also true. Coarse, dark facial hair against very pale skin is nearly impossible to wipe off short of removing the top layer of facial skin. The end result of a normal shave is a near permanent five o'clock shadow. (Jon Hamm is a good example. He's almost always clean-shaven on Mad Men, but never entirely loses the shadow.)

Some men who usually maintain full beards will choose a five o'clock shadow look during the warmer months as a cooler alternative and as a way to bypass the "itchy" phase of beard growth when they wish to grow it back.

Even without any of the above reason, using electric hair clippers with a short spacer permits maintaining a neat, even stubble for far less effort than shaving clean.

Richard Nixon was about a million times less attractive than Jon Hamm, but Nixon is another example of the Perma-Stubble effect caused by dark hair against light skin. Nixon's job as a politician pretty much ruled out a beard, so he had to shave two or three times a day throughout his public life. For his 1960 presidential debate against John F. Kennedy, Nixon used a makeup powder called "Lazy Shave" ("Hides the beard!") to hide his five o'clock shadow. It looked terrible. The contrast between sweaty, grizzly-chinned Nixon and handsome, tanned Kennedy is widely believed to have decided the outcome of the very close 1960 election.

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